Dating Dilemmas
by isobeljones2000
Summary: It's the school dance tonight, and Lexi still hasn't got a date. But Jathro is very eager to change this - and he knows who Lexi wants to ask out but is too shy to. Even Varg finds it easier to get a date than her. Lexi wishes everyone would just leave her romantic life alone. Includes Tom/Lexi and brief hints of Varg/Lyzera because I couldn't resist.


_Here's yet another oneshot about shy, socially awkward Lexi, this time in high school, trying to summon up the courage to ask out local heartthrob Thomas Clarke to the school disco. Add in Jathro as a fanboy, and you get complete chaos. Hope you enjoy!_

 _Imagine your OTP are in that stage where it's blindingly obvious to everyone but them that they are head over heels in love with each other. There is a big social event coming up, and Person A is thinking about asking Person B to go with them, but they are really nervous and afraid and confide in a mutual friend. After Person A asks whether the friend thinks Person B would say yes, the friend can't take it anymore and says "ARE YOU ACTUALLY KIDDING ME?" and storms off, bringing a confused Person B back with them. The friend asks Person B out for Person A, who is dying of embarrassment._

"I told you. Just ask him out."

"It's not as easy as that," Lexi told her best friend for the fourth time, rolling her eyes.

"How is it not as easy as that? Just ask him if he wants to go out with you. One sentence? How can that be difficult?"

"But he might say no," Lexi said quietly.

Jathro gave a melodramatic sigh. "For the _last_ time. He _won't_ say no. You've known him for so long, it's obvious you two are meant to be. He's infatuated with you. And you him."

The teenage girl didn't see that as quite so easy, and instead looked wistfully at the posters plastered around the canteen, which depicted a happy couple dancing and gazing into each other's eyes, with the words: "School Disco - Thursday 7:30pm" cutting through the centre of the page.

It was now Thursday morning, and Lexi hadn't got a date, or even the promise of one.

"Can't I just go with you, like I did last time?" Lexi asked pleadingly.

Jathro made a face. "No way. Have you seen your dancing? I was crippled for the next fortnight after last time. Anyway, I am taken. And I don't want you ruining my chances with her."

"Don't want to cramp your style," Lexi grinned.

"Anyway, I assumed you were going with Tom," Jathro said casually. "And as I told you, you should ask him out! To the disco! Tonight! It's the perfect time!"

"No!" Lexi was swift to deny. "We're just friends. We're not dating. I think he's probably already got a date anyway - it's Tom Clarke we're talking about here. He's probably already going with one of the endless group of girls that mill around him constantly. Katie, or Chloe, or someone like that."

"Or you," Jathro prompted, unwilling to drop the subject. "Stop making excuses so you don't have to ask him out." This argument had been going on all week, ever since the school had first been informed that there was a school disco.

At Lexi's withering look, Jathro finally dropped the subject and resumed chattering about something else, while Lexi lost concentration. Across the room, she saw a familiar face and mouthed the word 'help' to her brother, who was sitting watching her from his usual lunch table a few tables away.

"You still trying to get a date?" he mouthed with an infuriating grin. Varg had been listening to Jathro's rants all week in their kitchen both before and after school.

"It's not like you've got one," Lexi mouthed back. Both the siblings were adept at lip reading by now, they had done enough of it across the canteen.

"Oh yeah?" Varg winked. "Watch me."

She could only watch jealously as Varg tapped the girl next to him lightly on the shoulder, revealing his glossy white smile and speaking to her in a quiet voice. It also just happened to be Lyzera, one of the prettiest girls in Varg's year, who was looking interested. At her smile and nod, Lexi knew that Varg had just got a date for the disco, as easy as that.

Varg turned to Lexi with a smug expression and stuck his tongue out, to which Lexi replied with a childish scowl.

"See? It's as easy as that," Jathro commented, who had been watching over Lexi's shoulder.

"Not for me," Lexi said, feeling envious of her brother's careless ease. "Even you don't want to go with me, and you're my best friend."

"The only reason I'm not going with you is that I know you can get a date if you tried, and you're not getting the easy way out by asking me. Plus, I've already got a date," Jathro explained smugly.

"Yeah. Like Tom will say to me if I asked him out," retorted Lexi, sinking lower in her chair.

"He would not."

"He would too."

"Would not."

"Yes he would."

"No he wouldn't."

"Yes he -" Lexi trailed off as she suddenly saw Tom across the room, staring at one of the posters absent-mindedly, before transferring his eyesight over the room. His gaze only rested on her for the briefest of moments, but it was enough to make her tingle inside. Did he have a date? It certainly didn't look like it from here. "Would," Lexi finished dreamily, not really paying attention to their argument any more.

"See? Now you're even dreaming about him!" accused Jathro. "You're in love!"

 _Did she actually have a chance after all?_

Lexi made a quick decision and leaned in close to her friend , feeling embarrassed as she does so, but knowing that Jathro was the only one she could really confide in about this.

"Do you think -?" Lexi gulped softly. For the first time she was actually daring to hope.

Jathro sighed heavily after Lexi stopped talking for almost seven seconds. "Just spit it out, Lexi. I've got a school dance to prepare for, you know. I'm getting kind of fed up of trying to get you to see the painfully obvious. If you want to stay completely oblivious, fine by me. Just don't blame me when you're alone at the dance tonight, wishing you had asked him out when you had the chance."

"Do you think - if I asked Tom to go to the dance with me - would he say yes?" Lexi stuttered quickly and awkwardly, regretting asking the question as soon as it slipped from her traitorous lips.

"ARE YOU ACTUALLY KIDDING ME?" suddenly yelled Jathro, throwing his hands up in despair and receiving some odd looks from people around him. "OF COURSE HE WOULD! You're perfect for each other! It's so obvious! He's in love with you! I've been telling you that ALL WEEK!"

"But you're my best friend," Lexi said. "You have to say those things. It doesn't make them true."

"Right. That's it." Jathro said decisively. "I'll prove it to you. I didn't want to have to do this, but you leave me no choice. Stay there," he ordered Lexi with a glare that dared her to reply, and stormed off into the canteen before she could argue.

 _Oh no._

Before long, her best friend was back, dragging a very confused looking Tom out of his group of friends and towards her. Even while mentally dying inside, Lexi still found time to notice his floppy brown hair and his charming smile.

"Er, what's going on?" Tom asked Lexi as he was pulled closer. Even though they had grown up together, though Tom had seen Lexi in all emotions and in all circumstances, even though Lexi knew him better than she knew anyone - right now it felt like they were strangers and that she was a young child again, asking five year old Thomas Clarke if he wanted to play on the slide.

"I'm sorry," Lexi quickly apologized, flashing Jathro a furious look.

"Lexi's being oblivious again," Jathro explained bluntly, bringing Tom to a halt right in front of Lexi and pushing the girl towards him so she nearly stumbled into his chest. He sent Lexi a ' _you'll thank me later_ ' look.

 _Don't do it, Jathro,_ she willed mentally.

But of course he didn't listen to her internal pleas.

"Will you go out with Lexi to the disco tonight?" Jathro asked loudly right in Tom's ear. Lexi wished that it was possible to actually die of embarrassment, just so she didn't have to endure the stares from the people at the tables nearest her, or look at Tom any time in the next century or so. It doesn't help that she could see her brother grinning from a few tables away, obviously having heard the whole thing and making miming motions that Lexi decided not to interpret.

There was a moment of dreadful silence.

Long, interminable silence.

Then -

"Sure. Sounds good," Tom replied casually, meeting Lexi's eyes briefly with a rare smile, before walking away back to his table, not looking back.

"Finally," Jathro announced under his breath, rolling his eyes. Those two are completely oblivious.

Lexi was just still standing there dumbfounded. She was going out with Tom. She was actually going out with Tom Clarke, her lifelong crush. And he hadn't rejected her in front of everyone, like she had feared he might.

Jathro lost his composure completely, and took both her hands in his, shaking them up and down excitedly. He was obviously as surprised as Lexi. "It worked! He said yes! You've got a date!" he said, sharing Lexi's excitement.

Lexi managed a faint smile but could say nothing.

"Hate to say I told you so, but - I told you so!" grinned Jathro. "You, Lexi Nekross, are going to have a lot of jealous girls watching you at that disco tonight. You've got a date with Thomas Clarke!"

"I've got a date," repeated Lexi, trying out the taste of the words on her tongue.

"That's right." Jathro smiled smugly. "You have a date!"

 _Oh Jathro... I love writing these two as best friends, it just seems to fit. Plus having Varg as an annoying teasing older brother is just funny to write as well. Please review!_


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